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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28889151">the skies will clear</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/uwuxuxi/pseuds/uwuxuxi'>uwuxuxi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Mutants, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Childhood Friends, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Medical Procedures, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:53:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28889151</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/uwuxuxi/pseuds/uwuxuxi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When a beautiful boy with great wings crash lands in Kunhang’s arms, he says possibly the dumbest thing that could ever come to mind: “did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Wong Kun Hang | Hendery/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>83</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Challenge #4 — Awaken The World</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the skies will clear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello! this is partially inspired by the turn back time mv, which i spent exactly an hour and fourty-five minutes watching when i got sucker-punched with the idea and also inspired by the x-men comics! i don't get to touch on it much, by hendery's abilities are similar to jubilee's, if you're familiar with the comics!</p><p>kun and ten used to date. there's unresolved tension there.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When a beautiful boy with great wings crash lands in Kunhang’s arms, he says possibly the dumbest thing that could ever come to mind: “did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”</p><p>The boy is clearly dazed and shakes his head to clear it. He looks kind of like he wants to hurl and Kunhang is quick to sit up to press a hand to his forehead. He's running one hell of a fever and Kunhang knows he’s got some motrin inside the apartment, it’s just a matter of getting this boy and his wings inside.</p><p>“Did I…? <em>What</em>?” His voice is slurred, clearly exhausted, but he leans into the soft touch of Kunhang’s hand against his skin. “No, I just...fell…”</p><p>“From the sky.” The boy gives him a look and Kunhang smiles sheepishly before holding his hands out for him. “Okay, sorry, sorry. We gotta get you inside…”</p><p>There's no telling who saw the boy crash and given the size and adaptability of those wings—very few who did were going to pass up the chance to give up a mutant to the authorities. The reward was too high and the human inability to mind one’s own business was too hard to ignore.</p><p>The boy takes Kunhang’s hands and tries to stand, legs trembling. For a moment, he blocks the sun entirely where he stands in front of Kunhang but then his legs give out and Kunhang is barely able to catch him around the middle to keep him standing.</p><p>He didn’t notice it before, too struck by how pretty the boy who suddenly sat in his lap was, but he’s so very light for how tall he is.</p><p>“It’s okay,” Kunhang says softly, praying none of his neighbors are watching as he half-walks-half-drags the boy through his balcony door and into his apartment, “it’s okay, I’ve got you.”</p><p>Leon meows angrily from the kitchen counter—somewhere he definitely shouldn’t be—but Kunhang presses on until he can dump the boy onto the couch. They’re both panting by the time they arrive there but Kunhang can tell the exertion was nearly too much for the mutant in front of him. “Thank you…” he whispers barely loud enough to be heard as Kunhang goes around the living room yanking his blinds and curtains shut for privacy. “I...I used to live in this building, I think…”</p><p>Kunhang pauses as he locks the balcony door, turning to look at the boy. Something about him <em>is</em> familiar now that he looks past the wings and shock of white hair on his head. He played with so many of the neighborhood kids when he was younger but then he remembers one disappearing suddenly at the age of ten.</p><p>His parents said he’d died tragically. Kunhang remembers the funeral, the closed casket, crying over the loss of his best friend.</p><p>“Xuxi?” he whispers and crosses the floor quickly when Xuxi, because it <em>has</em> to be Xuxi, tries to scramble up. “Xuxi, <em>Yukhei</em>, it’s me… it’s Kunhang. Hendery?”</p><p>He watches the information process with bated breath and when Xuxi’s eyes water, Kunhang is there to pull him into his arms. “<em>Kunhang</em>...”</p><p>Realization hits Kunhang again and he holds Xuxi a little tighter. Wings sprout from his best friend’s shoulder blades and after Xuxi’s death, his parents had relocated to the richer part of town. He’d treated them like they were his auntie and uncle and they sold their own son out to scientists experimenting on mutants to find a way to stop the power mutations.</p><p>It’s taken nearly twelve years for Xuxi to find his way home and while his parents may not be here to receive him, Kunhang <em>is</em> and he’s not going to let him go without a fight.</p><p>“I’ve got you,” Kunhang says again, rubbing in between Xuxi’s wings until the taller boy melts within his hold. He takes stock of all of the cuts and bruises and frowns when he sees what looks like a fresh incision on Xuxi’s shoulder. “Xuxi, did...did they put something inside of you?”</p><p>“What do you mean?” He sounds so tired but he reaches up to his shoulder and feels the small bump there. The discovery doesn’t register surprise so Kunhang can guess he was at least somewhat awake for it. The idea makes him sick. “I don’t know what it is…”</p><p>Kunhang looks at the clock and he counts slowly to five. Ten's door opens just across the hall from his own and Kunhang shouts for him, keeping Xuxi secure in his arms. Xuxi doesn’t move and only presses his face into Kunhang’s neck in exhaustion. They can hear Ten fumble outside of the door and in the time it takes for him to find Kunhang’s key instead of the one to his own apartment, Kunhang promises Xuxi that they can trust him. Ten will get whatever it is, out. He swears. (He doesn’t need to swear for Xuxi to believe him, Xuxi trusts Kunhang.)</p><p>When Ten gets the door open, he’s still in his lavender scrubs and is in the middle of complaining when he sees Xuxi’s limp wings. He stares for a long moment before he slams the door shut behind him and kneels beside the couch. “Oh, honey… How did you get here…?”</p><p>“Followed my heart home…” Xuxi says slowly, taking in the slight man before him. He has pretty, long blond hair and when his hands touch Xuxi’s arm, they are warm and soft.</p><p>None of the nurses in the facility had such kind hands.</p><p>“He used to live here,” Kunhang explains, turning Xuxi slightly so Ten can see the small incision. “Can you…?”</p><p>“Take it out?” Ten asks, gently pressing against the bump. Xuxi hisses but he doesn’t try to attack Ten, so Ten counts that as a small win for them. “I can, it’s probably not buried too deep but I need you to get my medical bag from the apartment.” Kunhang hesitates and Ten gives him a stern look. “I won’t hurt him. Go, we want to get this out fast because there is a <em>high</em> probability that it’s a tracking device.” The silence that falls over them is heavy but Kunhang is up and grabbing Ten’s keys off of the kitchen table to run across the hall to Ten’s apartment.</p><p>Ten takes a careful catalog of Xuxi’s injuries before holding his face in his hands, his heart breaking at the way Xuxi melts into the tender touch. Ten doesn’t want to know how long it has been since Xuxi experienced a kind touch, a gentle hand that didn’t want to hurt him. “You know you can’t stay here,” he says softly, thumb rubbing slow circles over his cheek. “They don’t need to find Kunhang, too.”</p><p>Xuxi does know he can’t stay here indefinitely. He's been tracked and hasn’t slept in days, flying nearly nonstop until he found the place he’d called home before his parents drove him to the facility without a word. "I know..."</p><p>Ten’s words register and he stares at Ten. “He’s…? No, he can’t be…”</p><p>They don’t talk about it because they <em>can’t</em> talk about it. Ten has only seen the pretty fireworks sprout from Kunhang’s fingers three times himself before he begged for him to do his best to keep them in. It’s cruel, Ten knows, almost as cruel as what has happened to Xuxi but it’s kept Kunhang safe and alive.</p><p>Kunhang comes back in a flurry of motion and Xuxi wraps a trembling wing around him to bring him in close while Ten pulls on his gloves and sterilizes the area. It’s slow work to pry the tracking device out–because Ten is positive that it <em>is</em> a tracking device– and every pained whimper that leaves Xuxi rips a part of Ten’s heart out.</p><p>“It’s okay,” Ten whispers, gently rubbing Xuxi’s back, “you’re going to be okay…”</p><p>It would be foolish to let Kunhang destroy the tracking device with his powers so Ten stomps it underfoot until sparks fly off of it after he stitches Xuxi up.</p><p>They can’t stay here for much longer.</p><p>Ten thinks about Kun, his ex who he hasn’t talked to in six months but who is clearly still uncaptured and thriving at a small compound for mutants outside of the city. They don’t have many options and this is the safest one that Ten can think of. So he pulls his phone out and texts Kun, willing to beg him to save these two. </p><p><b>ten: </b>so i know i said we’d never speak again</p><p><b>ten:</b> but there are two mutants in front of me right now and i just took a tracking device out of one of them.</p><p><b>kun: </b>you’re home?</p><p><b>ten: </b>yes.</p><p><b>kun: </b>stay there. i’m coming. lock the windows and doors, okay? i won’t let anything else happen to them.</p><p><b>ten: </b>thank you. kun, i can’t thank you enough.</p><p>“Hen,” he says softly, reaching over to squeeze his shoulder. “Do you remember Kun?” Kunhang nods a little. “He’s like you both and he’s going to take you somewhere safe. You <em>can’t</em> stay here, not when the tracker was inside this building.”</p><p>Xuxi does not know Kun, but he trusts Ten and Kunhang and if they trust Kun then he does, too. The idea of safety with other mutants is an addicting one and even if he can sense how nervous Kunhang is, Xuxi is eager to move forward with it.</p><p>“How long do we have?” Kunhang asks, soft and wary, as Xuxi gathers him into his arms and hooks his chin over his shoulder. It's comfortable and familiar, even if the last time Xuxi held Kunhang like that was when they were both ten years old, and Kunhang allows himself to melt back into the strength of his arms.</p><p>“Maybe an hour until Kun gets here and as much as we need once he does.” Ten gets up and sighs, hands resting on his hips. Kunhang and Xuxi need each other right now and Ten is going to make himself busy by helping Kunhang pack. “He can stop time,” he explains when the boys stare at him blankly. “It’s...useful. Anyways, where’s your suitcase, hen?”</p><p>Xuxi’s lips quirk up a little and Ten knows he’s caught the innuendo. Kunhang simply wrinkles his nose in disgust before answering with “The hallway closet.” Ten knows where everything is and goes with one last look at the way Kunhang is curled into Xuxi’s chest and the taller boy has closed them both in with strong arms and great white wings.</p><p>They’re not in love yet but Ten knows they will be soon. The red string of fate has to wrap around their fingers and Ten envies them. He'd thought the same about himself and Kun but Ten will admit he’s been wrong in the past. He doesn’t think he’s wrong about Kunhang and Xuxi, though.</p><p>Kun arrives almost an hour later and the air shifts with his ability. For a moment, it feels as if they’re moving through molasses but they adjust quickly. Ten doesn’t talk to Kun, not that Kun expects him to, but he sighs softly all the same before turning his attention to Kunhang and Xuxi. The way they’re wrapped around each other makes his heart ache but he sees the bruises and cuts that cover almost all of Xuxi’s visible skin. Few mutants survive the facilities for long enough to escape and he looks exhausted. It’s a marvel that he’s made it this far at all.</p><p>“I… should go,” Ten says softly, rubbing his arms as Kun crosses the floor to kneel in front of Kunhang and Xuxi. All three of them look at him like he is absolutely insane and his shoulders lift up to meet his ears. “What?”</p><p>“<em>You </em>can’t stay here, either, Ten. You took the tracking device out.” Kun’s voice is too soft and Ten digs his nails into his arms. “They <em>will</em> find you and we can’t just leave you to known torturers. <em>I</em> can’t just leave you to known torturers. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a mutant. They won’t care now that you’ve helped three of them get away.” Kun’s voice is almost too soft for Ten’s comfort and he looks away.</p><p>The problem is that he knows that Kun is right. If Ten stays, he will be at the mercy of whatever facility tortured Xuxi for over a decade. His best bet is to go with them even if he’s loathe to admit that his dumb ex-boyfriend has a point.  “I guess I have to go pack, then.”<br/>
“Do you want help—?”</p><p>“Don’t waste your breath.” Ten picks up his keys from where Kunhang left them and heads to his apartment. He doesn’t see the look Kun gives him but he’s trying not to care.</p><p>With a soft sigh, Kun turns his attention back to the boys in front of him. “Xuxi?” he asks and gets a tired hum in answer. “I know people who can help you—people like us—but you have to say that you want to come with me.”</p><p>Kun says it like it’s a hard decision. As if Xuxi would willingly want to be surrounded by humans who thought he was a disease; that if they poked at enough, they’d find a cure for. He wanted to be safe and happy, and he wanted that with Kunhang, Kun, and Ten. He doesn’t care how they get there so long as they get there.</p><p>“I want to come with you,” he says with a voice so heavy with exhaustion that Kun winces. “I want to be around other mutants without seeing them suffer.” Kunhang’s arms tighten around Xuxi and he tucks his face into the smaller boy’s neck.</p><p>“You can use your powers freely, for once,” Kun tells Kunhang, who offers him a shy smile. He knows what Ten was trying to do by keeping Kunhang’s powers completely under the radar, but he also knows that not being able to use an ability that you were born with takes a toll on the brain. “And neither of you will have to worry anymore. That I can promise you.”</p><p>“And Ten?” Kunhang asks, lips just a breath away from the crown of Xuxi’s head. Intimate. Comforting. “What’s Ten going to do in a sanctuary for mutants?”</p><p>“Ten’s a nurse and he likes to work with people. I think it will be fine.” If he could put all of their history aside, which Kun was having difficulty doing himself. Kunhang gives him a look that says he doesn’t quite believe him but he lets the matter drop for now and turns his attention back to Xuxi, who asks Kun softly to describe where they were going.</p><p>An estate just out of the city tucked far away from the institutes that demanded mutants either fit into society or die, surrounded by lush gardens and a thick forest. Xuxi asks if it’s a fortress with a tremble in his voice and Kun hopes that every scientist and doctor responsible for making him afraid of safety and enclosed spaces rots in hell. </p><p>“It's kind of like boarding school,” Kun admits, sitting back on his heels as Leon slinks over to him and rubs against his thigh. “Or a country club for mutants. You’ll have complete freedom to do what you want once you get there so long as you promise to be safe about it.”</p><p>Xuxi considers this and spreads one of his wings. The afternoon light shines through the white feathers and Kun and Kunhang marvel at him for a moment. “Can I fly?”</p><p>“Whenever you want,” Kun says softly and Xuxi’s face lights up in a moment. This boy deserves much better than he’s gotten and Kun is… very glad that he can give it to him.</p><p>Ten opens the front door, Louis in his carrier and his biggest suitcase behind him. He knows he can’t bring everything but he’s got a backpack and a duffle full of other important things, so. He thinks he’ll be fine. “Ready to go, boys?”</p><p>Kun’s molasses time loop follows him out of the apartment and cloaks the four of them until they get into the car. Ten holds Louis’ carrier with white knuckles as Kun speeds out of the city.</p><p>Minutes after they leave, black vans pull up to the apartment building. They ransack the skeletal remains of Kunhang and Ten’s apartments but find no trace of their lost mutant nor the two powerful ones who’d protected him. Not even a feather was left behind in their escape.</p><p>If it weren’t so frustrating, it would almost be impressive.</p><p>Ten sees it on the news when he checks his phone and knows that if Kun hadn’t insisted he come with them, he’d be in one of those vans to never be seen nor heard from again. They won’t disappear completely from the record—the apartments are in their names—but it will be difficult to find them inside the walls and forests of the Neo Weishen estate. They have friends who will miss them, of course, but Ten looks up into the rearview mirror and takes in the way Xuxi curls into Kunhang, peacefully asleep for what must be the first time in years.</p><p>Uprooting everything they know is worth their safety.</p><p>When they finally pull up to the estate, a lovely man with pastel pink hair runs up to the car, bubbles floating around him in the same shade. “I'm Taeyong,” he says all smiles and bubbles, eyes sparkling as they climb out of the car. Xuxi spreads his wings wide and the boy claps, delighted. “Welcome to Neo Weishen.” There are faces in the windows and Taeyong holds out his hands for Kunhang and Xuxi to take. “It might take some getting used to, but you will be safe here. Nothing happens to my boys here. I promise you that.”</p><p>Xuxi's smile is radiant.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>come talk to me on <a>twitter</a>!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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